Lifting for the Love of It

distinctlybeautiful

If my primary goal is to enjoy the process of lifting with a secondary goal of muscle retention and a hey-that-would-be-cool-if-it-happens-to-happen feeling about getting stronger, is there any reason I shouldn't create and follow my own program? My plan includes compound lifts and hits all my other muscle groups pretty evenly, and I intend work it progressively. I'd say I've been lifting for a couple years now if that matters.

slaite1

Do what you want, really.

If you're doing it blindly my only concern would be a poorly designed program that causes injury due to imbalances or something. That would definitely not add to your good feeling. But if you feel you have a solid grasp and want to play around with making your own program, by all means have at it. I tweak my own, and did so long before I was certified. It hurt my progress at the beginning, but kept me interested.

I'll add, though, that (for me at least) part of "the love" of lifting IS that strong feeling and progressing. So if you make a program and start to feel stagnant, maybe reassess and get some help. Would it really still be fun if you were stuck at a weight and NOT getting stronger?!?

Fflpnari

Relationship staus: barbell love. I love weight lifting. As long as you have a basic method to your programming it would be ok to do your own thing. Just make sure to keep it challenging

rybo

Have at it.
It's the people who are looking for results & trying to program their own without any solid foundation that are discouraged from doing so.

DancingMoosie

If you're already familiar with programming, you should be able to figure out what to do on your own and how to make it balanced. I basically follow the main 5 lifts and then add glutes and biceps/triceps as needed, sometimes back and pec flys.